


i'll bury you by the river, carve your name into the sand

by fortunedays



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Gen, i'm back and as angsty as ever, post-samaritan bonding basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-21 00:32:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunedays/pseuds/fortunedays
Summary: In some other universe, she saved him. In some other universe, she wasn't broken enough to lose her friend.





	i'll bury you by the river, carve your name into the sand

Shaw returns to them the same way she left, in a hail of bullets and blood. Weeks pass and she's still a little paranoid, but Root's keeping her grounded. Her memories are a little shaky but she's working on it.

With the team's attention aimed at Shaw, Fusco is left to his own devices. He knows there's something shady about what happened to Shaw, he's not stupid. He knows there's something Finch and John aren't telling him. So he starts digging. He witnesses Finch get a call from the Machine and trips over Samaritan's name when he listens to Root.

It isn't until he makes the connection of Samaritan and what's been happening around the city does he know he's in deep shit. The dead bodies whose case files are stacked up on his desk. All those missing people. Missing Shaw. The omniscient knowledge his friends have has to have an evil counterpart. He searches the internet and questions anyone he can, and tries not to think about the fact that everyone disappears after he leaves.

He still treads carefully around Shaw. They were friends, before. He trusted her with his life. (Truly, he still does. He trusts her, and it scares him. Because her mind was broken but she wasn't, but he doesn't know who Shaw is anymore. He doesn't think she knows either.) Root invites Fusco to a mostly empty apartment on the shadow map that is hers and Shaw's now, and together he and Root help Shaw remember.

Some nights, Shaw seems like the woman they used to know. She cracks jokes, she scowls, she remembers. But the other nights (most nights), she seems lost, gets caught in Samaritan's web of mind games and can't find her way out. It's nights like these that Fusco sees how much pain this causes Root too; the way her eyes soften at Shaw's struggles, the way she bites her lip when Shaw can't figure out what's real.

"Sameen," Root whispers, like it's something sacred. "Sameen, look at me."

She does, most times. Shaw meets Root's eyes and sometimes she's angry, sometimes she's scared, but always, Root stays. Root stays, and tells her what's real. Fusco watches the two of them rebuild each other, night after night.

He watches and he listens. He hears the name Samaritan whispered more than once, especially when Root insists that _it's not real, sweetie, it's just what Samaritan made you believe. It's not real._ And some nights, when Shaw has a grip, however unsteady, on what is real, she tells them what happened to her.

She tells them about the mind games, about the simulations. She tells them about how she had to go through losing them over seven thousand times, how she killed them with her own hands. "I didn't want to give you guys up," she insists. "They would kill you. They still will." She gazes at Fusco then, knowing he's been listening. "I can't let them do that."

On the bad nights, Shaw falls asleep before Fusco leaves, her head on Root's lap and her body curled protectively around itself. Root trails her fingers through Shaw's hair and reiterates her warnings to Fusco.

He apologizes to no one when he doesn't listen. He keeps digging and finds more leads, more trails pointing toward what Samaritan is and who's running it. At one point he's reminded of Carter, how she tried so hard to bring down HR even when she was warned to back down. _Look what happened to her_ , he tells himself. But he sees what happened to Shaw, and asks himself if he can live with doing nothing to help her get revenge.

He finds names. Martine Rousseau, Jeremy Lambert, John Greer. This is it, he thinks. Carter's defining moment is now his. But the morning he writes up the warrants, he catches a glimpse of some guys in suits packing heavy, and he knows he's done. It's too late to tell the team and apologize, and he books it the hell out of dodge.

But he's not the only person he has to worry about.

It's almost midnight. Fusco knows he's being hunted, that they're closing in. But he stops. Finds a pay phone. And he calls the only person he can trust with what he's about to ask.

Shaw answers the phone quickly, and he can hear Root in the background. "Shaw," he says, "it's Lionel. I need a favor."

"What's wrong?" Root's gone quiet.

He's nervous, eyes flitting around in the shadows, breathing heavy. "Listen Sameen, d'you remember back, few years ago, when you had to choose between saving me and saving my son?" He closes his eyes and prays, prays that she remembers.

Shaw's confused, but there's something that alights in the back of her mind. A slightly fuzzy, slightly blurred memory of listening to Fusco sob his thanks while she stood watch over a young boy. "Yeah, Lee," she confirms, and Root's running to get Harold.

"I need you to do something very important for me," he says, and he's fucking terrified now. His eyes get watery. "I screwed up Sameen, I found out too much. The people that are chasin' you are chasin' me too. I need you to find my son. Please keep him safe, Sameen."

Shaw's throat tightens and she can hear Root yelling at Harold to find Fusco. On the other end of the line, he begins to sob, and Shaw is brought back to two years ago when she was in this same position (the same tears, the same plea) and god, how she wants to drop the phone now and go save him.

Lionel's heart is beating a mile a minute, he's crying, when he sees a black SUV turn the corner at the end of the block. He's desperate, scared. "Promise me, Sameen, please."

His sobs stab through Shaw and she whispers, "I promise, Lionel."

Men unload from the car and Lionel tightens his grip on the phone. He pulls out his gun and fires as they do. Root has rejoined Shaw, and she reaches out and grabs the hacker's arm. Shots ring out through the phone and Shaw knows he's dead, she knows, but she only ends the call when the bullets stop.

She stands still, for a minute, eyes staring unfocused at the exposed brick of the subway wall. Root watches with unshed tears in her eyes as Shaw tries to make sense of everything whirling around her. Eventually, she concentrates and looks at Root, and Root can see how much Shaw's hurting.

"It's real," Shaw whispers, "this is real. I didn't kill Fusco but he's dead." All Root can do is nod.

Shaw takes Root (there's no way she can do this alone) and finds Lee within the hour. Bluntly, painfully, Shaw tells the kid what happened. He cries, and it's all Shaw can do to wrap her arm around his shoulders and let him get it out. He sounds so much like his father.

They attend the funeral a few days later. Shaw goes, but only because Lee asks. It echoes of Carter and too many people lost too soon. They have to leave quickly.

At the subway, Shaw sits next to Root in her makeshift room. "I should've saved him" is the only thing she can say.

"There's nothing you could've done, sweetie." Root takes Shaw's hand in hers and holds on tight.

Shaw absentmindedly traces Root's knuckles as she searches for words. "I let him down, Root. _Again_. I should've saved him."

Root winces at the rawness of Shaw's voice. "You saved Lee. That's all he asked."

Shaw can't find the words to express any more. She leans her head on Root's shoulder and closes her eyes, and tries to erase Lionel's sobs from her memory.

In another universe, she tells herself, she could've saved them both.


End file.
